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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22407601">A Dark Side</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier'>Brumeier</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bite Sized Fic 2020 [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Three Investigators | Die drei ??? - Various Authors, The Trixie Belden Mysteries - Julie Campbell Tatham &amp; Kathryn Kenny</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Feels, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Dynamics, Gun Violence, Hospitalization, Prompt Fill</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 12:55:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>860</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22407601</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>LJ Comment Fic for 80’s TV prompt: <i>Any, any, Tales From the Dark Side</i></p>
<p>In which Trixie is angry and scared after Jupiter is seriously injured, and funnels those feelings into a plan for vengeance.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Trixie Belden/Jupiter Jones | Justus Jonas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bite Sized Fic 2020 [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1610332</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Dark Side</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><i>The dark side is always there, waiting for us to enter — waiting to enter us</i>. (Tales from the Darkside)</p>
<p>Mart was worried. No, scratch that. Too simple. Mart was daunted. Distressed. Aghast. Disquieted. He’d come out to California to help Trixie after the shooting, but he hadn’t anticipated just how much help his sister needed.</p>
<p>“You should eat something,” he suggested.</p>
<p>“Not hungry,” Trixie replied shortly.</p>
<p>She was looking through a stack of paperwork including local maps, copies of which she’d obtained from the county clerk’s office. They were covered in post-in notes, highlights, and Trixie’s weird brand of shorthand. She’d been at it for hours, insisting that something in all that paperwork would lead her to the man who’d tried to kill Jupiter.</p>
<p>“You can’t help him if you pass out from hunger and exhaustion,” Mart said. He nudged the plate closer to his sister. “It’s chicken salad with cranberries. Your favorite.”</p>
<p>Trixie pushed it back with a scowl. “I said I’m not hungry.”</p>
<p>“Trixie –”</p>
<p>“I have to find whoever did this!” Trixie got up from the table so quickly she knocked her chair over. “You weren’t there, Mart! You didn’t see…The expression on his face…”</p>
<p>This was it. This was the moment Trixie would finally break down, cry it out, and get back to being herself again. Instead, she took a shuddering breath, visibly steeled her spine, and righted her chair. She sat back down and went back to looking for clues, jaw clenched.</p>
<p>Mart didn’t know what to do. His sister might as well have been a stranger. The twinkle that was normally in her eyes had hardened to a knife’s edge. He wasn’t just scared for Trixie. He was a little scared <i>of</i> her.</p>
<p>He wished she’d stayed at the hospital, sitting beside Jupiter’s bed and holding his hand like a normal person. Then again, Trixie had never been anyone’s definition of normal.</p>
<p>Mart gave in and pulled up a chair. He ate Trixie’s sandwich and let her explain what she was looking for. By the time he’d finished eating he was elbow deep in the search himself. He was the older brother – eleven whole months – and he had to do his part to keep Trixie from getting herself in trouble.</p>
<p>He never counted on the gun.</p>
<p>“Where did you get that?” he hissed, looking between Trixie and the man she was holding at gunpoint. The man she’d tracked down because she really was a damn good detective.</p>
<p>“You can get anything in this town,” Trixie replied, her voice as cold as an arctic blast. “Isn’t that right, Daltry?”</p>
<p>“Get rid of that thing before the police get here!”</p>
<p>“I didn’t call them.”</p>
<p>Mart had often heard the phrase ‘my blood ran cold’, but he’d never personally experienced it before. Until now.</p>
<p>“You shot my husband,” Trixie said to the unfortunate Daltry, her tone eerily without emotion. “You left him to die.”</p>
<p>“One inch to the left and I’d have had him,” Daltry replied with a snarl.</p>
<p>Mart was having a hard time sympathizing with a man who talked that way to a person pointing a gun at him. Did he not have any survival instincts?</p>
<p>“You can’t shoot him,” Mart said.</p>
<p>“Sure I can.” Trixie thumbed off the safety. “Four pounds of pressure, that’s all it takes.”</p>
<p>Trying to wrestle the gun out of her hands would be too dangerous, so Mart did the only thing he could think of. He stepped between Trixie and Daltry.</p>
<p>“This isn’t who you are, Trixie. If you shoot this guy, you’ll go to jail. Who’ll be with Jupiter then? He’s going to need you.” Mart held up his hands, imploring her to listen to reason. </p>
<p>“He might never wake up.”</p>
<p>“He will. I know he will. He loves you too much to die.”</p>
<p>Finally, there was a crack in Trixie’s hardened façade, a sign of the good person she was shining through just a little.</p>
<p>“You two are special. How many times has Moms said that? And it’s true. Jupiter won’t leave you, not like this. Don’t make him wake up to find you gone.”</p>
<p>“Listen to your friend, girlie,” Daltry said over Mart’s shoulder. “Or else I’ll have to –”</p>
<p>Mart brought his elbow up and back, catching the guy right in the mouth. It hurt like the devil, but Daltry stopped talking and started moaning piteously, blood dripping down his chin. He said something about a broken tooth. Mart hoped he choked on it.</p>
<p>Trixie handed him the gun, and Mart immediately slipped the safety back on. His next move was to call the cops. Let them deal with Daltry. </p>
<p>“I don’t want him to die,” Trixie said, her voice small and scared. She looked beseechingly at Mart. “I love him so much.”</p>
<p>“I know you do, kiddo.”</p>
<p>Mart kept hold of the gun, and kept Daltry in his sights, but he moved to throw an arm around Trixie. She hugged him back tightly, crying. Mart was feeling a little shaky himself.</p>
<p>He’d been able to pull Trixie back from the dark side this time. He hoped to heaven he never had to do it again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><b>AN:</b> I pondered this prompt for a long time before I decided to go forward with giving Trixie a dark side. She’s canonically very single-minded, particularly when she’s on a case, and I thought given the right circumstances Trixie might just step over the line. Would she have actually pulled the trigger? No, I don’t think so. She wouldn’t have gone that far. But she absolutely needed a distraction from Jupiter being so gravely injured and feeling helpless to do anything about it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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